How To Hand Scrape Hard Wood Floors

Hand scraping achieves the old look that gives hard wood floors a different kind of rustic beauty and a lot of personality. Unlike distressing hard wood floor, which is done with a machine, hand scraping is done manually. For this reason, hand scraping is a bit more expensive if done by professionals. But if you want to give your hard wood floor a lot of character without spending a lot, consider hand scraping your floor on your own. You can also create a more customized hand-scraped look if you do it this way. Hand scraping is pretty simple to do. Here’s how.

Prepare all the things you will need. To speed up the scraping process, it is important for to you keep all the tools you will need handy. Particularly, you need to prepare a scraper, sponge, small pail of water, vacuum cleaner, stain, and sealer. Also, make sure to prepare gloves and goggles for your hand and eye protection. An inhalator is also necessary to keep you from inhaling dust particles.

Prepare the room. Before you start, you have to clean the room of all furniture. The fixtures should then be covered with newspapers to prevent dusts and wood particles to settle in them. And because the room will get dusty during the procedure, make sure to open all windows. When everything is ready, begin to vacuum the entire floor.

Wet the floor. Start by wetting a 2x2 foot floor area with a sponge dipped in a pail of water. You need to wet the area you are working on to make it more visible and also to make scraping easier to do.

Scrape the small floor area. When you have already scrubbed the floor with a wet sponge, get your scraper and begin scraping the 2x2 area. You need to scuff against the floor grain to get an authentic hand-scraped look. You will notice some friction or resistance when you do this. But that’s normal. Continue to hand scrape until you have removed the top wood layer and made markings on your floor.

Scrape the remaining floor area. After scraping the first 2x2 area, wet another part of the floor and scrape it in the same way you did to the first area. Just make sure not to scrape too much wood. Finish scraping when you already have achieved the markings and old look you are going for.

Finish the hand-scraped look. You can do this by first vacuuming the dust particles and wood shavings from the floor. When it is already clean, apply stain to the floor. Leave it to dry completely. Then, apply sealant. Make sure to follow the coat layer recommendation of the sealant manufacturer.

Consider hand scraping the flooring of your entire house. This is a big
task, though, so do it only if you have enough time and patience. But
trust that all the hard work is worth it if you have successfully
created the hand-scraped look in your entire hard wood floor.